Is it a travesty to play Bach's harpsichord music on a piano?

Harpsichords of Bach's time had stops and coupling mechanism capable of colour variety of a type that is impossible to achieve on the piano. read more

One could argue that it's a greater travesty to play the harpsichord music on any instrument tuned according to modern principals (equal temperament, piano 'stretched' tuning, etc.) Ultimately, as Stuart Campbell said above, the genius of Bach's music is that it works no matter the instrumentation (see Switched on Bach by Wendy Carlos as but one extreme example) and it still works under our modern equal tunings. read more

Bach is the one composer that can be played on just about anything. If you have the chops to play Bach on the theremin, go for it! If you can play Bach on the harpsichord, go for it! If you can play Bach on the piano, go for it—but be aware that there is a good deal of it that won’t work—i.e. fugues, etc. read more

It is, of course, so safe to play Bach on a harpsichord: there is simply no question about one's intentions, and there is often no question about how one is playing Bach, as long as one plays it on a harpsichord. read more